


The Unhappy Birthday

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Birthday, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Post-Season/Series 02, garcy, i think that's what this is, it's a big dose of feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 03:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14685369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: After a mission in San Francisco 1906 where Flynn keeps acting funny, Lucy takes it upon herself to see what's causing it.





	The Unhappy Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> @voxeterna1 requested: Flynn is being a total snarky dumpster fire on a mission. When they get home they realize it was because that day was his daughters birthday
> 
> (Set in a timeline where Rufus is alive/brought back/never died)

It was after they got off the Lifeboat that Lucy was certain something was wrong with Flynn. Rittenhouse might not have had the capability to cause an earthquake, but they could take out the people who would help put the city back together. Their goal was to find the sleeper and the other Rittenhouse agents from their time to make sure San Francisco wasn’t brought down for good. If that happened, then it would have catastrophic events on their present.

Flynn hadn’t said very much during the briefing, and even less during the trip. Only when Wyatt barfed for the first time in months did he say something sharp. When Lucy asked if he was okay, Flynn replied shortly that he wanted to focus on the mission. Then he walked forward with the man leading them towards the building they were looking for.

For the hours leading up the earthquake and the days of chaos that would follow it, Flynn continued to focus on the mission and only the mission. He threw himself headlong into any danger that cropped up in their path. It made Lucy worry about him even more. She worried that he was going to get himself killed and warned him about it.

But when the quake did hit, he snapped out of his focus and pulled her out of the way of a wall that was coming down. He shielded her with his body in a staircase when another part of wall pinned them into the wall. Her claustrophobia had started to act up and Flynn did his best to calm her down until Rufus arrived and fished them out. However, she could hear his heart beating loudly and quicker than normal and his unease made her more nervous.

Lucy, Rufus, and Flynn succeeded in getting all the big names they needed to safety while Wyatt neutralized the sleeper again. The rest of the Rittenhouse agents escaped and they would be fought again another day. All that was left was for the team to get back to the present to make sure that everything would be relatively intact. To do so though, they had to trek through a majority of the destruction.

On their way back to the Lifeboat, they passed by dozens of citizens who were dealing with the aftermath. People crawling out of rubble, lifting it off of other people. Some were calling out for lost family members. There were some crying beside still and broken bodies.

Lucy was watching a group of men looting an abandoned house when she bumped into Flynn. He was standing motionless in the street as Rufus and Wyatt continued to walk forward. She could see that there were tears falling down his face. Lucy gazed around him to see a young girl lying on the street. Blood covered her entire face as a mother wailed next to her. 

“Flynn,” she placed a hand on his arm.

He stiffened at her touch before seeing it was only her. 

“Come on,” she said. “It’s okay.”

Flynn nodded and started walking again. Lucy kept pace beside him despite having shorter legs than him. She could guess what had caused this reaction. But with his behavior during the rest of the day, she was unsure what the cause of it was.

* * *

 

After arriving back in 2018, Flynn took off directly for his room. Lucy watched him go, still curious. She waited it out for two hours before going to his room. Taking a deep breath, Lucy reached out and knocked on his door. “Flynn?”

A few moments passed before Flynn opened the door. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah,” Lucy nodded. “Is everything okay?”

“Fine,” he answered, but she could tell he was lying and fixed him with a glare.

He sighed and lowered his head, moving to the side so she could enter. Lucy entered quietly, taking in the neat state of the room around her. Flynn closed the door behind them for privacy. There was a laptop open on the desk with a flash drive stuck into the side. On screen was a little girl grinning in front of a cake with four candles. 

“Is that your daughter?” she asked as the picture changed to another one with Flynn beside the girl. 

“Yes,” Flynn nodded. “Iris.”

“She looks adorable.”

Flynn smiled. “She was. That was on her fourth birthday.”

Lucy looked away from the screen to Flynn. “Today’s her birthday.”

He nodded.

“How old would she have been?”

“Nine,” Flynn said softly. “She would have been nine years old today.”

“I have no idea,” Lucy murmured. “That’s why you were like that in San Francisco.”

“I thought I could throw myself into the mission and forget what had happened to her,” Flynn closed his eyes and sat on the bed. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I kept pushing myself more and more. It only made the pain worse though.”

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy took a seat in the chair next to the bed. “I can’t even begin to imagine what you must feel right now.”

She reached over and rest her hand on his. 

“I promised I would protect her,” he continued. “Every night, she asked me to check her closet to see if there was a monster hiding inside. So I would take a water pistol, go in, look around, then come out and tell her there were no monsters hiding inside. I always did that for her. Then one night, I did that, but I wasn’t looking close enough or for the right monsters. They got to her and my wife.”

Lucy bit her lip. “I never knew you did that for her.”

“I’ll never be able to do it again,” Flynn murmured before smiling slightly. “Although at nine, she’d probably be telling me she was too old for monsters.”

She chuckled a little before her expression went solemn again. “Thank you for telling me about this.”

“My behavior earlier deserved an explanation,” he replied. “If that wall hadn’t been about to fall on you, I probably would have still been acting that way.”

There was silence for a few minutes. On the computer, a slideshow of pictures of Flynn and Iris, along with Flynn’s wife, played.

“Do you want me to leave you alone?” Lucy asked quietly.

“I’ve been alone for the past two hours,” Flynn said. “It hasn’t been much better than earlier.”

“Oh.”

“However, having someone to talk to is making it more manageable.”

Lucy smiled, remembering her hand was still over his. She gave it a gentle squeeze.

“As long as you need someone to talk to,” she promised. “I’ll be here...Garcia.”

Flynn glanced over at her when she used his first name and nodded. “Thank you.”

Lucy glanced at the screen again. “I do have a question for you.”

“Go on.”

“How did Iris get that frosting to cover her face?”

Flynn looked at the current picture and shook his head with a small laugh. “It’s quite the story there.”

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews/Prompts= Love!


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